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Intellectual honesty. Lots of us talk about it, but pitifully few of us practice it.

We read the papers we always read, watch the news channels we always watch, we keep going back to the same information sources online, all the while ingesting the same slant and bias until... we start thinking we aren't slanted and biased at all.

What's really happening, of course, is this: as we become more and more immersed in sources that reinforce our views, we become like a fish in water. Meaning: since the fish always lived in water and never knew anything else, it doesn't actually know it's in water.

Likewise, thanks to the friends and peers we find ourselves with and the "information" that finds its way to us, we all too easily forget we're in passively-chosen social, political and intellectual glass tanks of our own.

We're all in water too.

So today's giveaway is unlike any other you've ever seen. It's a giveaway of two books that approach the food industry from exactly opposite ideological directions: one is pro-government intervention, one is pro-free market. One is liberal, one is libertarian. One is aggressively anti-business and anti-corporation, the other actively celebrates what business and corporations can do to meet consumers' needs.

I want my readers to read both. Why? Because no side has a monopoly on the truth. I firmly believe that if you don't make a practice of curiously and open-mindedly reading the oppositional view on everything you believe... you're the intellectual equivalent of a fish in water.

If you want to see summaries of each book's content, just take a look at my brief write-ups on both in my Voracious Reading Trial post. Conveniently, they're books #1 and #2 on the list.

Now, to enter is the easiest thing ever. Just leave a comment below with a book you'd recommend to ME. That's it! Your book recommendation(s) can be any subject you like: food, investing, fiction, I don't care. I just care that a reader considers it worth recommending. Make sure you leave some way for me to reach you (email, or a link to your site) in your comment!

I'll select the winner at random on Sunday, November 24, 2013 at noon Eastern Time. Good luck and let's start seeing those book recs!

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12 comments:

Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles by Ray Daniels. It looks in brief at the history of each style, explaining how it got to where it is today, then provides recipe outlines for each style so that you know what to do to make that beer.

Dan, you are always interesting. I don't want either of those books (my TBR queue is out of control) so don't choose me, but here are two wholehearted book recommendations (for everyone on the planet).

"The Subject Tonight is Love," poems by Hafiz rendered by Daniel Ladinsky;

two very different novels, both from a first person perspective, and both historical in a sense. One is Gloryland by Shelton Johnson. It tells the story of one of the Buffalo Soldiers (a little told story anyway) and his journey from the deep south and ending as a ranger during the early days of Yosemite national park. The second novel I first read almost 39 years ago and still think about sometimes - not so much for the writing but for the totally different perspective. It is Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach. Its a short easy read but will leave you wondering "what if" my email is jkumar167@aol.com.

It's a refreshingly honest, hilarious, and both heartbreaking and heartwarming guide to handling some of life's biggest curve balls and challenges.

I'm trying to reduce the number of physical books in my home to only those that will be reread, loaned frequently, and cherished (if I win, can I get kindle editions? ;P), so I had initially rented this book from the library. Literally, the minute I finished it, I went on amazon to buy myself a hardback copy. It's that good.

Side note: it's really hard to choose just ONE book recommendation. If you want more, you can always message me on facebook. ;)

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